For the third consecutive year, Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas in Rogers has been named to the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list. Published today in Fortune, the honor designates Mercy among the top performing teaching hospitals in the U.S.
The hospital’s quality care has been consistently recognized in recent years, including receiving a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and earning A safety grades from The Leapfrog Group.
IBM Watson Healthidentifies 100 Top Hospitals through a rigorous evaluation of 2,675 short-term, acute care, non-federal health care facilities in the U.S. The annual list recognizes excellence in clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, financial health and patient experience. IBM Watson Health established the list to help identify best practices that may help other health care organizations achieve consistent, balanced and sustainable high performance.
“It lifts our spirits to be recognized for the third year running for our excellence in care and best practices that ensure optimal outcomes for our patients,” said Eric Pianalto, president of Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas. “It’s been a tough year for everyone but especially for health care workers, and we’re grateful for their sacrifices and dedication to the best in care in unforeseen and difficult circumstances.”
Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas is a 252-bed, faith-based nonprofit hospital offering a 24-hour emergency department, cardiovascular care, women and children’s services, Level IIIA neonatal intensive care unit, general, bariatric and orthopedic surgery, and more. Mercy completed a nearly $300 million expansion in late 2019, which included a $141 million, seven-story hospital tower addition that nearly doubled the hospital’s footprint and added beds and enhanced services.
This year’s ranking of top hospitals introduces a measure of hospitals’ contributions to community health developed by a team of experts at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. For the ranking, hospitals were surveyed across three components:
– Assessing hospital contributions to community health as a provider of critical services for community health and preventive care.
– Identifying ways that hospitals contribute to community health as a community partner teaming up with local organizations to implement critical programs.
– Focusing on ways that hospitals promote community health through their practices as anchor institutions supporting local economic and social progress.
Hospitals received credit for meeting a certain number of best practice standards in each component as part of the survey scoring and the new measure led to a change in ranking for more than one-third of the 100 hospitals.
According to IBM Watson Health, as compared to similar hospitals, the hospitals on the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list had better results on key clinical and operational performance indicators. These include survival rates, patient complications, health care associated infections, 30-day mortality and 30-day hospital-wide readmission rates, length of stay, throughput in emergency departments, inpatient expenses, profitability and ratings from patients.
“We are proud of all of the hospitals, health systems and their dedicated clinicians and staff included among the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals,” said Irene Dankwa-Mullan, M.D., chief health equity officer and deputy chief health officer at IBM Watson Health. “From small community hospitals to major teaching hospitals, organizations on this list demonstrate a relentless commitment to high value, patient-centered care and innovation. They also recognize the importance of contributing to the health of their communities and we applaud them for their programs that help provide equitable quality care and address health disparities.”
For more information, visit http://www.100tophospitals.com/.